March 3rd
– 9th
We had several very windy but
productive days this past week as we concentrated on the wetland areas near
Volusia County. Our first venue
was Princess Place Preserve located in Palm Coast, about an hours drive north
of our winter digs. With friends
visiting from New York, we felt the need to introduce them to some new birding
sites as well as revisiting old reliable areas to bolster their Year-lists. Princess Place can usually be counted
on for a number of warbler species, Marsh wrens, both Sora and King rails, and
terns and waders. The wind was
certainly a factor as most of the smaller birds were hunkered down and
difficult to locate. The rails
were more cooperative even if only vocally. It’s great to hear these elusive birds, but even better to
photograph them…..not the case today.
Another normally secretive bird, the Hermit thrush, was more obliging
and stayed out in the open long enough to give us good looks and a few good
photos.
Our first armadillo of the
season also made an appearance, an must in any blog dealing with the wildlife
of Florida.
On the trip home, we stopped
to walk the trail at High Bridge Park in Ormond Beach. The wind had abated by this time and
some of the smaller songbirds were much more active and more vocal. This little Blue-gray gnatcatcher came
in close to check us out long enough to give us all good shots. These little guys have been quite
abundant of late and it’s always good to see one of Mother Nature’s real works
of art in the realm of cuteness!
Our next journey found us at
the Viera Wetlands and Duda Ranch in the town of Viera. The ride over to check out the adjacent
“Click Ponds” was great. We didn’t
expect to get a whole lot over there, but we found the north pond full to the
brim with White pelicans attempting to stay down out of the heavy winds.
Hugging the shoreline, we
observed another of nature’s best-dressed birds, the Black-necked stilt. The stilts were joined by both Lesser and
Greater yellowlegs, American wigeon, Blue-winged teal, Forster’s terns, and
Pied-billed grebes.
Our first Swallow-tailed
kites, a sure sign of spring (which is after all only two weeks away) was
observed flying over the preserve and was photographed even if he only gave us a
passing view. This bird is
certainly one of the most graceful fliers of the animal kingdom and is an
eagerly awaited migrant in mid-March here in Central Florida.
Our final trip of the week was
out to Orlando Wetlands with our friends from Halifax River
Audubon and proved
to be one of the best outings of the year to date. Early on, we encountered the elusive Black-bellied whistling
duck. The pair we observed flew
into a shallow pool and were soon joined by a White ibis. The ducks were more than willing to
share their space with the ibis.
Next on the list of uncommon
birds was the Purple gallinule. We
actually found a half dozen of these iridescent beauties, each appearing to
display slightly different colors depending on the angle of the sun’s rays
hitting their plumage.
Continuing along the dirt
roadway, we ran into limpkins, Caspian terns, soras, and King rails. The calls of the limpkins pierced the
otherwise quiet setting. The goal
was to relocate the Vermillion flycatcher seen earlier this year since our New
York guests had never seen one. After all, this bird should be somewhere around the Baja at
this time of year, and here he (or more correctly they since two have been sighted here this year) has proven to be a
“Life-bird” for many of the visitors to Orlando Wetlands since February. We had to work for it, but eventually
one of the birds was located and although somewhat distant, was cooperative in
that it flew back and forth between the same several perches. By keeping the scoped trained on any
one of these, we were able to get fine looks of this rare beauty.
Next week, we will head north
to Amelia Island and see what these locales have to offer. Check back next weekend to see how we
make out!
No comments:
Post a Comment